AN ANALYSIS OF AL-ATTAS AND AL-FARUQI S VIEWS ON ISLAMIZATION OF KNOWLEDGE.

Transcription

1 1066 AN ANALYSIS OF AL-ATTAS AND AL-FARUQI S VIEWS ON ISLAMIZATION OF KNOWLEDGE. Fatin Nazmin Mansor, Wan Hakimin Wan Mohd Nor, Nik Mohd Nabil Ibrahim@Nik Hanafi Kolej Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Selangor fatinnazmin@kuis.edu.my ABSTRACT The meaning and definition of Islamization of Knowledge is very important issues since it was introduced and started to revive educational system in Muslim world. The fact is many Muslim still do not confidence what is real definition of Islamization of knowledge. The importance of Tawhid and survival as a Muslim today was a need to change our Educational system by Islamize the Knowledge. To understand views in understanding Islamization of knowledge, this purpose of research is to reveal views from two important contributor in this field, Al-Attas and Al-Faruqi. Both opinion are sharing the same idea about the Islamization of knowledge which based on Tawhid and focus on God is the origin of knowledge and the only basis of good deeds. Tawhid is the religion's most fundamental concept and holds that God (Allah, literally Al-Ilāh "the God") is One (Al-ʾAḥad) and Single (Al- Wāḥid). The analysis will help us to appreciate the discourse of views of Islamization of Knowledge in the in its proper spiritual and ideological perspectives. Keyword: God, Tawhid, Islamization, Al-Faruqi, Al-Attas. 1. INTRODUCTION Islamization of knowledge was bringing by our prophet Muhammad (p.b.t) since the first revelation of al-quran in Mecca, turning jahiliyyah people to worship Allah (s.w.t) with the noble knowledge. Allah is the ally of those who believe. He brings them out from darknesses into the light. And those who disbelieve - their allies are Taghut. They take them out of the light into darknesses. Those are the companions of the Fire; they will abide eternally therein. It is not the new idea and new term since our ummah create many new things and idea years by years, decades by decades, beginning from our prophet (p.b.t), sahabah, tabi iin, tabi tabi in spread Islam with noble knowledge and Islamic educational system with the principle of Iqra, based on surah al- Alaq. Recite in the name of your Lord who created In term of the world nowadays, the idea was first used and proposed by the Malaysian scholar Syed Muhammad Naquib al-attas in Islam and Secularism, first 528

2 published in 1978, closely followed by the Palestinian philosopher Ismail Al-Faruqi in 1982, who borrowed many of the ideas of al-attas CONTRIBUTION OF TWO ISLAMIC SCHOLARS, ISMAIL RAJI AL- FARUQI AND SYED NAQUIB AL-ATTAS Ismail Raji Al-Faruqi Isma'il Raji al-faruqi (January 1, 1921 May 27, 1986) was a Palestinian-American philosopher, widely recognised by his peers as an authority on Islam and comparative religion 2. His father, Abd al-huda al-faruqi, was an Islamic judge (qadi) and a religious man well-versed in Islamic scholarship. Dr. Faruqi received his religious education at home from his father and in the local mosque. He began to attend the French Dominican College Des Frères (St. Joseph) in His first appointment was as a Registrar of Cooperative Societies (1942) under the British Mandate government in Jerusalem, which appointed him in 1945 the district governor of Galilee. Subsequent to the partition plan of Palestine, and the creation of the independent Jewish state of Israel in 1948, al-faruqi at first emigrated to Beirut, Lebanon, where he studied at the American University of Beirut, then enrolled the next year at Indiana University's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, obtaining his M.A. in philosophy in He was then accepted for entry into Harvard University's department of philosophy and was awarded his second M.A. in philosophy there in March 1951, with a thesis entitled Justifying the Good: Metaphysics and Epistemology of Value (1952). His dissertation was deeply influenced by the phenomenology of Max Scheler ( ), particularly the latter's notion of axiological intuitionism. Al-Faruqi argued that Scheler's axiological intuitionism privileged feeling as knowing, thus recognizing the logic of the heart as an a priori emotional intuition of value. Such recognition could justify carving out a conceptual as well as practical space for the emergence of a critique of post

3 Enlightenment Reason from the standpoint of a non-western philosopher. However, he decided to return to Indiana University; he submitted his thesis to the Department of Philosophy and received his Ph.D in September By then he had a background in classical philosophy and the developing thought of the western tradition. In the beginning of 1953, he and his wife were in Syria. He then moved to Egypt, where he studied at Al-Azhar University ( ) and viewed as similar to acquiring another Ph.D. In 1958, al-faruqi was offered a position as a Visiting Fellow at the Faculty of Divinity at McGill University in Canada. During his two-year tenure at McGill he studied Christian theology and Judaism, and became acquainted with the famous Pakistani Muslim philosopher Fazlur Rahman. During these years, al-faruqi was preoccupied with his anti-zionist Arab identity. Rahman reminisced in 1986 that al- Faruqi's blunt anti-zionism and his refusal to play the detached scholar "frightened" his McGill colleagues. Although he was soft-spoken with unfailing smiles, at McGill he was considered to be, in Rahman's words, "an angry young Muslim Palestinian". In order to challenge al-faruqi's Arabo-centric views of Islam, and to broaden his scope of understanding the ummah, in 1961, Rahman arranged a two-year appointment for him in Pakistan at the Central Institute of Islamic Research. Rahman intended to expose al-faruqi to the cultural diversity of Muslims and their contributions to Islam. "Except", Rahman (1986) later recalled, "it was his Arabism which drew a great deal of fire both inside and outside the Institute, as well as his academic preference for Cairo Dr. Al-Faruqi's early emphasis was on Arabism as the vehicle of Islam and Muslim identity. He was also one of those who proposed the idea of Islamization of knowledge and founded the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) together with Sheikh Taha Jabir al-alwani, Dr. Abdul Hamid Sulayman, former Rector of the International Islamic University, Malaysia (IIUM) and Anwar Ibrahim, in During his years as a visiting professor of Islamic studies and scholar-in-residence at McGill University, a professor of Islamic studies at Karachi's Central Institute of Islamic Research as well as a visiting professor at various universities in Northern America, he wrote over 100 articles for various scholarly journals and magazines in addition to 25 books, of the most notable being Christian Ethics: A Historical and Systematic Analysis of Its Dominant Ideas. He also established the Islamic Studies Group of the American Academy of Religion and chaired it for ten years. He served as the vice-president of the Inter-Religious Peace Colloqium, The Muslim-Jewish- Christian Conference and as the president of the American Islamic College in Chicago. al-faruqi viewed the existence of Israel as an affront towards the religion of Judaism due to its state ideology of Zionism. He said that the injustice caused by Zionism is such as to necessitate war. He proposed a resolution in which Israel is dismantled and its institutions de-zionised; and that former Israeli Jews who have renounced Zionism would live as an ummatic community and move freely throughout the Muslim world: "[Islam] requires the Jews to set up their own rabbinic courts and put its whole executive power at its disposal. The shari'ah, the law of Islam, demands of all Jews to submit themselves to the precepts of Jewish law as interpreted by the 530

4 rabbinic courts, and treats defiance or contempt of the rabbinic court as rebellion against the Islamic state itself, on a par with like action on the part of a Muslim vis-àvis the Islamic court." 4 Al-Faruqi points out that al-tawhid is a view of reality, of truth, of the world, of space, of human history and destiny. 5 AlFaruqi further elaborates that al-tawhid is the recognition that the truth is indeed knowable, that man is capable of reaching it. Skeptacism, which denies this truth is opposite of al-tawhid. Al-Faruqi states that there are three axes of Islamization: The unity of knowledge, which will abolish the dichotomy between aqli (acquired) and naqli (revealed) sciences; the unity of life, which will eradicate the distinction that some sciences are value-involved and some are value free thus making all the sciences as value loaded; and the unity of history, which will remove the separation of knowledge into individual and social sciences, formimg all disciplines that are at the same humanistic and and Ummatic. 6 Al-Faruqi sets up a work plan for the Islamization od modern knowledge that consist of five objectives as follows: 1. To master the modern disciplines 2. To master the Islamic legacy 3. To establish the specific relevance of Islam to each area of modern knowledge; 4. To seek ways for creative synthesis between the legacy and modern knowledge 5. To launch Islamic thought on the trajectory which leads it to fulfillment of the divine pattern of Allah. 7 In order to achieve the objectives of the workplan and the aims of Islamization of knowledge, al-faruqi further outlines twelve steps through which one must go through. 1. Mastery of the modern disciplines; 2. Discipline survey 3. Mastery of the Islamic legacy; Anthology; 4. Mastery of the Islamic legacy: The analysis 5. Establishment of the specific relevance of Islam to the disciplines 6. Critical assessment of the modern discipline : The state-of-the art; 7. Critical assessment of the modern legacy : The state-of-the art 8. Survey of the Ummah s major problems; 9. Survey of the problems of humankind; 10. Creative and analyses and syntheses Isma il Raji al-faruqi, Al Tawhid: Its Implications for Thoughts and Life (Kuala Lumpur. International Islamic Federation of Students Organization, 1983) 45 6 Al-Faruqi, Islamization of Knowledge, Introduction 7 Mohd Murat Md Aris, Islamization of Knowledge; A Comparative Analysis of The Concept of Al Faruqi and Al Attas. 531

5 11. Recasting the disciplines under the framework of Islam; The universitu textbook; 12. Dissemination of Islamized knowledge. Syed Naquib Al-Attas Syed Muhammad al Naquib bin Ali al-attas (Arabic: السيد محمد نقيب العطاس Saiyid Muḥammad Naqīb al-ʿaṭṭās; born September 5, 1931) is a prominent contemporary Muslim philosopher and thinker from Malaysia. He is one of the few contemporary scholars who is thoroughly rooted in the traditional Islamic sciences and who is equally competent in theology, philosophy, metaphysics, history, and literature. He is the pioneer in proposing the idea of Islamization of knowledge. Al-Attas' philosophy and methodology of education have one goal: Islamization of the mind, body and soul and its effects on the personal and collective life on Muslims as well as others, including the spiritual and physical non-human environment. He is the author of twenty-seven authoritative works on various aspects of Islamic thought and civilization, particularly on Sufism, cosmology, metaphysics, philosophy and Malay language and literature. 8 Syed Muhammad Naquib al-attas was born in Bogor, Java [Indonesia] into a family with a history of illustrious ancestors, saints. His genealogical tree can be authentically traced over a thousand years through the Ba Alawi sayyids of Hadramaut and all the way back to the Imam Hussein, the grandson of Mohamed.[He was the second of three sons; his older brother, Syed Hussein Alatas later became an academian and politician, and also had a younger brother, Syed Zedal. He has also at least one known cousin, namely the academician Ungku Abdul Aziz. After World War II, in 1946 he returned to Johor to complete his secondary education. He was exposed to Malay literature, history, religion, and western classics in English, and in a cultured social atmosphere developed a keen aesthetic sensitivity. This nurtured in al-attas an exquisite style and precise vocabulary that were unique to his Malay writings and language

6 After al-attas finished secondary school in 1951, he entered the Malay Regiment as cadet officer no There he was selected to study at Eaton Hall, Chester, England and later at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, UK ( ). This gave him insight into the spirit and style of British society. During this time he was drawn to the metaphysics of the Sufis, especially works of Jami, which he found in the library of the Academy. He traveled widely, drawn especially to Spain and North Africa where Islamic heritage had a profound influence on him. Al-Attas felt the need to study, and voluntarily resigned from the King s Commission to serve in the Royal Malay Regiment, in order to pursue studies at the University of Malaya in Singapore ( ). While an undergraduate at University of Malaya, he wrote Rangkaian Ruba`iyat, a literary work, and Some Aspects of Sufism as Understood and Practised among the Malays. He was awarded the Canada Council Fellowship for three years of study at the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill University in Montreal. He received the M.A. degree with distinction in Islamic philosophy in 1962, with his thesis Raniri and the Wujudiyyah of 17th Century Acheh. Al-Attas went on to the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London where he worked with Professor A.J. Arberry of Cambridge and Dr. Martin Lings. His doctoral thesis (1962) was a two-volume work on the mysticism of Hamzah Fansuri. In 1965, al-attas returned to Malaysia and became Head of the Division of Literature in the Department of Malay Studies at the University of Malay, Kuala Lumpur. He was Dean of the Faculty of Arts from 1968 until 1970, where he reformed the academic structure of the Faculty requiring each department to plan and organise its academic activities in consultation with each other, rather than independently, as had been the practice hitherto Thereafter he moved to the new National University of Malaysia, as Head of the Department of Malay Language and Literature and then Dean of the Faculty of Arts. He strongly advocated the use of Malay as the language of instruction at the university level and proposed an integrated method of studying Malay language, literature and culture so that the role and influence of Islam and its relationship with other languages and cultures would be studied with clarity. He founded and directed the Institute of Malay Language, Literature, and Culture (IBKKM) at the National University of Malaysia in 1973 to carry out his vision. In 1987, with al-attas as founder and director, the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC) was established in Kuala Lumpur. This institution strives to bring an integrated Islamization into the consciousness of its students and faculty. Al-Attas envisioned the plan and design of every aspect of ISTAC, and has incorporated Islamic artistic and architectural principles throughout the campus and grounds. 9 Al-Attas developed a style and precise vocabulary that uniquely characterized his Malay writings and language. In 1970, al-attas was one of the senior founders of the National University of Malaysia, which sought to replace the English language with the Malay language as the medium of instruction at the tertiary level of education. In

7 1973, he founded and directed the Institute of Malay Language, Literature, and Culture (IBKKM) at the new University. Al-Attas has won international recognition by orientalists and scholars of Islamic and Malay civilisations. He has chaired the panel on Islam in Southeast Asia at the 29th Congress International des Orientalistes in Paris in In 1975, he was conferred Fellow of the Imperial Iranian Academy of Philosophy for outstanding contribution in the field of comparative philosophy. He was a Principal Consultant to the World of Islam Festival held in London in 1976, and was speaker and delegate at the International Islamic Conference held concurrently at the same place. He was also a speaker and an active participant at the First World Conference on Islamic Education held at Mecca in 1977, where he chaired the Committee on Aims and Definitions of Islamic Education. From , he was a Visiting Professor of Islamic at Temple University, Philadelphia, United States. In He chaired the UNESCO meeting of experts on Islamic history held at Aleppo, Syria, and in the following year the President of Pakistan, General Muhammad Zia ul-haq, conferred upon him the Iqbal Centenary Commemorative Medal. [citation needed] He occupies a position of intellectual eminence in his country as the first holder of the Chair of Malay Language and Literature at the National University of Malaysia ( ), and as the first holder of the Tun Abdul Razak Chair of Southeast Asian Studies at Ohio University, U.S.A. ( ) and as the Founder-Director of the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC), Malaysia (since 1987). He has delivered more than 400 lectures throughout Europe, the United States, Japan, and the Far East and the Muslim world. And in 1993, in recognition of his many important and far-reaching contributions to contemporary Islamic thought, Anwar Ibrahim, as the Chairman of ISTAC and the President of the International Islamic University Malaysia has appointed al-attas as the first holder of the Abu Hamid al-ghazali Chair of Islamic Thought at ISTAC. King Hussein of Jordan made him a Member of the Royal Academy of Jordan in 1994, and in June 1995 the University of Khartoum conferred upon him the Degree of Honorary Doctorate of Arts (D. Litt.). He is also an able calligrapher, and his work was exhibited at the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam in He has also published three Basmalah renditions on a living subject (kingfisher, 1970; chanticleer, 1972; fish, 1980) in some of his books. He also planned and designed the building of ISTAC (1991), the unique scroll of the al- Ghazali Chair (1993), the auditorium and the mosque of ISTAC (1994), as well as their landscaping and interior decor, imbuing them with a unique Islamic, traditional, and cosmopolitan character. 10 According to al-attas, his concept about Islamizatopn of knowledge is based on his adoption of an Islamic metaphysics that is a synthesis of ideas traditionally upheld by Muslim theologians (Mutakallimun), philosophers (hukama ) and Sufis (sufiyyah or ahl al-tasawwuf)

8 the metaphysics of al-attas, in fact all his articulations on Islam are based on his interpretation of the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet (pbuh), and the teaching of what Iqbal calls the more genuine schools of Sufism. 11 The Islamic worldview is not to be understood as adualism, for Islam affirms only One Reality and truth, and all Islamic values pertain ultimately to It alone, so that to the Muslim, individually and collectively, all endeavor towards change and development and progress and perfection is invariably determined by the world view that project s the vision of the One Reaity and confirms the affirmation of the same Truth 12 Thus, Islamization of contemporary knowledge; that knowledge of the realities of things and their ultimate nature can be established with certainty by means of our external and internal senses and faculties, reason and intuition, and true reports of scientific or religious nature, transmitted by their authentic authorities. 13 Islamization is defined by al-attas the liberation of his spirit or soul bears direct influence upon man s physical being and brings about peace and harmony within himself and also between him and other man and nature. According to al-attas knowledge includes faith and belief (iman) and knowledge should be followed by action ( amal) for there is no useful knowledge without action and there is no action without knowledge. 3. ANALYSIS In term of educational movement, we need more researchers and scholars in order to improve the education system, to provide more facilities to make sure the result of Islamization of Knowledge is successful. In analyzing al-faruqi and al-attas view on Islamization of knowledge, we found that both are the same idea about knowledge. Their opinion is based on Tawhid and God is the origin of knowledge and the only basis of good deeds. To al-faruqi, he believe that the process of Islamization of knowledge also inherited from traditional knowledge, while al-attas confines the concept of Islamization only modern knowledge. Al-Faruqi s method is to reveal the sortcoming both of traditional and modern method and synthesizes the positive aspect of both to produce Islamized knowledge. For al-attas, such knowledge is actually need to be Islamize, but not Islamic traditional knowledge because I does not suffer from seculization and has been Islamized. 4. A CRITICAL VIEW OF ISLAMIZATION OF KNOWLEDGE Taha Jabir al-wani wrote in his article, Islamization of Knowledge; Yesterday and Today: 11 Wan Mohd Nor Wan Daud, The Educational Philosophy and Practices of Syed Muhammad Naquib al-attas Kuala Lumpur:ISTAC, 1998) Syed Naquib al-attas, Prolegomena to the Metaphysics of Islam (Kuala Lumpur:ISTAC,1995), Wan Muhammad Nor Wan Daud, An Outline of the Educational Philosophy and Methodology of Al-Attas, 535

9 Within the Islamization of knowledge school, the idea of Islamization has always been understood as an intellectual and methodological outlook rather than academic field, a specialization, an ideology or a new sect. 14 As we can see, most of scholars take the idea of Islamization of Knowledge as an intellectual issues and this is the part of challenges we have to face in order to reach the target of educational movement especially in Islamic country. One of the main issues is Blind Followong or Taqleed. Muslim today practicing Islam with blind following without taking the right path of knowledge. They read, taking information from internet and not refer to real sources. The development of technologies of information and communication such as internet and social networking bring harms in young generation s life. A Muslim scholars should bring a new methodology and principles of Islamization of knowledge by combining the ideas of al-faruqi and al-attas, suitable to context of problem in Muslim world nowadays. 5. CONCLUSION Nowadays, as a new generation of Muslim world, we faced many types of problems as Muslim known as terrorist in West. Many Muslim countries have a big challenges to rise a Muslim child because of war, political issues, social issues and economic issues. The only answer to solve all this problem is to turn back to real haqq or the real truth. Prohibited to you are dead animals, blood, the flesh of swine, and that which has been dedicated to other than Allah, and [those animals] killed by strangling or by a violent blow or by a head-long fall or by the goring of horns, and those from which a wild animal has eaten, except what you [are able to] slaughter [before its death], and those which are sacrificed on stone altars, and [prohibited is] that you seek decision through divining arrows. That is grave disobedience. This day those who disbelieve 14 Taha Jabir Alwani, Islamization of Knowledge; Yesterday and Today, p

10 have despaired of [defeating] your religion; so fear them not, but fear Me. This day I have perfected for you your religion and completed My favor upon you and have approved for you Islam as religion. But whoever is forced by severe hunger with no inclination to sin - then indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful (5:3) Allah has promised that He will perfect for Muslim and approved Islam as a religion with His Mercy and help. In order to get this promised, as a Muslim we must work hard and unite in order to solve many kind of problems in our Muslim society. To be unite, we need strength, and to get strength, knowledge is the main and only solution. Ilm or knowledge in Islam, is an obligation enjoined upon mankind by the creator. This knowledge can be acquired through revelation as well as reason from observation as well as intuition through tradition as well as theoretical reflection. This diverse way for study political phenomena must, however, be subservient to the eternal values of divine revelation.this entails associating the pursuit of knowledge with such Qur anic concept as tawhid, khilafah, ibadah, ilm, adl, istislah, and the like. Only the knowledge pursued within the matrix of eternal value of Islam, as khilafah and ultimately for the pleasure of Allah, attains the status of ibadah. This means, interalia, avoiding all haram activities promoting zulm and dhiya. 15 Thus as al-faruqi mention about tawhid the basic and unifying principle in Islam. Upon this principle al-faruqi elaborates and develops his conception and methodology of Islamization of knowledge. Say, "He is Allah, [who is] One, Alla, the Eternal Refuge. He neither begets nor is born, Nor is there to Him any equivalent (112:1-4) 15 A. Rashid Moten, Islamization of Knowledge, The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences,p

11 Islam calls all Muslims to seek knowledge and considers the acquiring or knowledge to be of great importance for everyone. The Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h) is asked to pray for an increase of knowledge. And say, My Lord! Increase me in knowledge (Taha: 114) He,( p.b.u.h) said, Whoever follows path in the pursuit of knowledge, Allah will make a path to paradise easy for him (al-bukhari, Kitab al- Ilm;10) It is also frequently said, Seek knowledge fom the cradle to the grave, and Seek knowledge even though it be in China. In order to get a great victory in both world, here and hereafter, we need more actions to Islamize knowledge as world almost close to the end. Both scholars, al-faruqi and al-attas had shown a great contribution in order to create Tawhidic knowledge. The collaboration of idea both scholars should be focused by new generation of Muslim scholar nowadays, so the idea of Islamization of knowledge can be achieved as world challenges is quite hard in Muslim world today. 6. BIBLIOGRAPHY Sa idu Sulaiman, Islamization of Knowledge, Backgrounds, Models and the Way Forward, p.17. Muhammad Mumtaz Ali, The History and Philosophy of Islamization of Knowledge, p Isma il Raji al-faruqi, Al Tawhid: Its Implications for Thoughts and Life (Kuala Lumpur. International Islamic Federation of Students Organization, 1983) 45 Al-Faruqi, Islamization of Knowledge, Introduction Mohd Murat Md Aris, Islamization of Knowledge; A Comparative Analysis of The Concept of Al Faruqi and Al Attas. Wan Mohd Nor Wan Daud, The Educational Philosophy and Practices of Syed Muhammad Naquib al-attas Kuala Lumpur:ISTAC, 1998) Syed Naquib al-attas, Prolegomena to the Metaphysics of Islam (Kuala Lumpur: ISTAC, 1995), 177 Wan Muhammad Nor Wan Daud, An Outline of the Educational Philosophy and Methodology of Al-Attas, Taha Jabir Alwani, Islamization of Knowledge; Yesterday and Today, p.1. A. Rashid Moten, Islamization of Knowledge, The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences,p